opinions

Mona Kai dance pumped up, flip-flops

As I walked up the hill from Stauffer to the Harris Amphitheater parking lot, which has been referred to by students as “the desert,” I was not greeted with bare-skinned, sweaty dancers as I had anticipated. No, no—I was greeted with bright red and blue lights attached to black and white stripes and a line of stiff police officers. A crowd was being cleared from the tent, and a wave of confusion hit me, “What is going on?”

Make your time here worth it: do the work

Before coming to college, we are all privy to exciting tales that build excitement for the college experience. There will be partying, there will be sex and there will be drinking. Therefore, many students come expecting a year of extravagant festivities to be remembered blurrily for the rest of their lives. It also seems many times that this idea of the college experience overpowers the other aspects of college that are perhaps more important, if not vital, to the real college experience.

Late nights studying, stressing about finals and engaging in new academic experiences that challenge the intellect and open the mind are perhaps less exciting and certainly less glorified components of college that seem to get left out of the “college experience” we heard about in high school.

Make Obamacare available

As the healthcare debate has moved from Congress to the Supreme Court, it has created renewed debate and outrage. The focus has moved from the content of the bill—which is known as both “Patient and Protection and Affordable Care Act” and, more informally, as Obamacare—to the opinions of the Supreme Court Justices.

One would assume that the debate in the Supreme Court would be over the content and its legality; however, the debate is quickly becoming an expression of ideological divides within the Court, which have become a microcosm for both Congress and the American public.

Freshman feces unneeded

Dear unconscientious defecator,

The one who left an enormous, odious mound of excrement in the toilet without flushing. The one who found it necessary to discard their soiled toilet paper on the floor instead of the toilet bowl. I have a few questions.

First of all, where do you think you get off? Was this funny to you? Who do you think cleans up after you? Did they deserve this? What has your community done to you that merit such inconsideration? How would you feel if someone did this in your home?

Subsidized tuition adds to rising costs

College tuition costs will continue to rise as long as the Federal government continues to blindly pour money into the system in the form of financial aid. Over the past decades, the large amount of government funding has not been making college more affordable. The idea that tuition increases are due completely to inflation is simply untrue, as rising tuition rates have always outpaced that of inflation.

Much like our health care system, the effects of government subsidies has carried many negative aspects. The “bloating” of the system has shielded colleges and universities from having to make market-driven cost-cutting measures that would cause them to improve their productivity and efficiency.

Stop music piracy with suitable, legal alternatives

In today’s era of digital information, the idea of downloading anything is second nature to most college students. Music especially has come to be the “it” thing to download — let’s face it, we’re the iTunes generation. But with music so readily available on the Internet, it becomes easy to bypass services such as iTunes in favor of less reputable—and less expensive—means.

After all, who wants to pay $9.99 for an album when it’s available for free on the Internet?

GOP unfairly attacks women’s health

Many of you would think I am exaggerating if I called the recent women’s health debates in our domestic policies a “War on Women.” But if you actually pay attention to what goes on, you would see that it’s not an exaggeration at all. There seems to be a very definite theme in this presidential election, which is the GOP 2012 presidential candidates’ war on women’s health issues, more specifically birth control and abortion.

Let’s take a look at the most obvious fact: none of the most fervent policymakers attacking women’s contraception or the current presidential candidates are actually women. These are men trying to understand and control an issue which does not apply to their gender at all or affect them.

Letter to the Editor

I am writing in regards to the opinions article, “Cost of societies outweigh benefits”. Although I recognize that this is an opinions article, it is extremely biased and completely un-researched. I am a Whittier College alum, class of 2011. While at Whittier College, I participated in many amazing organizations, made incredible friends, and grew tremendously as a young adult. The most important organization that I was a part of was, and still is, the Thalian Society.